Reading Science with Andy Helck - Thursday at 6PM

The subject of the next Reading Science is Planetary Migration in our Solar System. We will be studying Dr. Walsh's July 2011 paper from the journal Nature. Planets were so named by the Greeks as 'wandering stars' because of how their position in the night sky varied relative to the fixed stars. We know now that this happens because the planets, including the Earth, orbit the Sun. Today these orbits are relatively stable, and the order of the planets: (Sun), Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto seem permanent. Come and find out about "planetary migration," the study of how the planets have moved around the Solar System over the last 4 billion years. How do scientists determine these migrations? Recent observations of distant planets circling far away stars have breathed new life into theories of our own solar system history.